Study shows black children more optimistic on race than white peers

Anderson Cooper, on CNN’s AC360, recently highlighted a study of how children perceive race, which found black children to have more positive attitudes towards interracial contact than their white counterparts. Researchers deduced this after watching first grade students reactions to a series of photos depicting black and white children on a playground. The Huntington Post reports:

In a follow-up to a 2010 study that examined children’s attitudes on race, and on the heels of the racially-charged killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, CNN’s Anderson Cooper is highlighting findings from a year-long investigative study that explores how children perceive “interracial contact in their daily lives.”

The first of Coopers’ findings, revealed on his show AC360, suggests that African-American children have more positive interpretations of situations involving black and white children than their white counterparts do.

Researchers drew the conclusion after observing first-graders’ reactions to photos depicting children on a playground. Along with the photos, the children were asked the following questions: “What’s happening in this picture?”, “Are these two children friends?” and “Would their parents like it if they were friends?”